Category Archives: hope

That’s right, everybody! Graham and I are moving again! This time, we are moving 2,345 km (or 1,457 m) northwest from our current hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba to the small hamlet of Tulita in the Northwest Territories. Graham got a job with the North West Company at a Northern Store up there, and we couldn’t be more excited to start this new chapter in our lives! It’s going to take a little while before we get things settled (the official move date is October 20th – I have so much to do!), but I promise we will do our best to keep the blog up and running as usual.

We look forward to taking Ivy on her first plane trip, though of course we’re slightly terrified by the possibility that she may just lose her shit. But she loves watching airplanes, so we’re hoping she’ll love being in one just as much (knock on wood)! We’re bringing Willow with us, and I found a really comfy and warm carseat liner from when Ivy was just an itty bitty newborn winter baby that we’ll be lining her kennel with, so at least she’ll be comfortable.

Honestly, I can NOT wait to leave the hustle and bustle of the city. We live on the junction of Maryland Street and St. Matthew’s Avenue here, where inner city crime is generally at its height, and I am so pleased that we will no longer have to bear multiple emergency vehicle sirens in the middle of the night, or several fire alarms in our building due to faulty installation or the crazy noise of upstairs neighbours with twins plus one, since our new home is a side-by-side in a quiet bush town full of bears and foxes (I am not kidding) where we will get 20 hours of night in the middle of winter and light all the time in the middle of summer. Yes, the bugs will be bad. But I think this move will be good for all of us. I think it will help me clear my head. I think it will be good for my writing. I can’t wait to share my adventures with all of you (and of course keep reviewing the books on my list) as we make this wonderful change in our lives.

After posting my lovely Harry Potter fanart t-shirt I’d designed for my Zazzle store, I was kindly informed by Zazzle that since I don’t own the rights to Harry Potter, I can’t post fanart designs of him on items in my store. *sadface*. So, a huge apology to anyone who wanted that shirt, but I must follow the laws of these Muggles or I’ll probably be granted a visit from the Supreme Mugwump himself, and nobody wants to deal with that! SO, I made a different shirt!

This is a tiled image of a painting done by yours truly in 2011 on cheap dollar store canvas with really old tempura paints and terrible OT brushes. AND I LOVE IT. It’s called ‘Fireweed’, because as a kid living in northern Manitoba growing up, there were always a lot of forest fires and there’s this certain beautiful crimson flower that only grows after a fire, and it’s called ‘fireweed’. I was in hospital for some mental health problems when I painted this, and to me it symbolized hope: the hope that even after the flames of whatever terrible thing is destroying your life have died down and all you’re left with are the charred remains of the utter you, a certain kind of life can still grow – the kind of life that can only grow after the death of some of the most important things you hold dear. This painting and this shirt remind me of the fact that we have all gone through terrible things (some are doing so right now) and through it all, there is always hope for life beyond the blaze. It’s available here at daenorestel, my Zazzle shop. A lot of struggle and turmoil and hope and resistance went into this design and I hope you feel that strength when you wear it. Also, a bonus: You can choose any shirt type you like on the website, it doesn’t have to be the flowy crop top. So…yay! That’s it for today. Stay strong and love yourself. Keep reading. Keep hoping. Love you all. ❤ ❤ ❤
– SharaLee